Legal Research

Circumstantial Evidence On Levy Murder Suspect

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, March 4, 2009.

"Washington, D.C., authorities apparently are depending on circumstantial evidence to convict a 27- year-old Salvadoran of killing federal intern Chandra Levy nearly eight years ago, the Washington Post reports. Ingmar Guandique is serving a 10-year prison sentence for attacking two other women at knifepoint in the same park where Levy's remains were found. Investigators obtained statements from victims of Guandique and from unidentified witnesses who said he confessed in letters and conversations, often in grisly detail, how he attacked, sexually assaulted and killed Levy."

"A 13-part Washington Post series detailed police mistakes that led investigators to focus much of their attention and resources on former U.S. Rep. Gary Condit (D-CA). Former Washington police chief Charles Ramsey, now Philadelphia's police commissiioner, told the Post he had not known that his two original detectives on the case never interviewed the two women whom Guandique had attacked at knifepoint. "That's ridiculous. That's fundamental and basic," said Ramsey. 'There are a few things that I assumed had been done. People criticized us for micromanaging. In retrospect, we should have micromanaged more.' "

Washington Post

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on March 04, 2009 (boomark / email).